Episode 97: How to Get Good at Writing Hooks

Welcome to the Create youe Laptop Life podcast, where entrepreneurs all around the world come to learn how to market and grow their online business right from their laptops, wherever they are. We don't have traditional nine to five jobs and we don't want them because financial and lifestyle security and freedom is too important to us. We know the world is changing for the better and that the freelance and entrepreneur economy is the cleaner, greener, smarter way to work for both families and businesses. My name is Julie, and this podcast will teach you everything you need to know about creating and growing your laptop life. Hey, everyone, this is Julie. Today I want to talk about one of the hardest parts of marketing, and that is writing a good hook. So as much teaching as I do around copywriting, marketing, talking about hooks and angles and headlines is really, really tricky. And I'm trying to figure out how to communicate with what makes a good hook and what doesn't. So here are some of my best ideas, my best advice. I just went through over 300 submissions in one of our coaching programs. It's called Launch Gorgeous Light. And we are helping people write a paid workshop, like a low ticket paid workshop. And I went through 300 ideas, and the hook was the single worst part of all of it. Like, that's something that people just don't naturally know how to do. And I think a lot of people are like, what do you mean when you say the hook? Are you talking about the headline? Yes, it could be the headline, and oftentimes you'll see the hook manifest itself in the headline. But it's really the sense of what happens when someone lands on the page and they make a decision in three seconds or less. Am I going to continue reading about what's on this page? Am I going to continue to be interested or am I going to bounce off? And so it's the combination of the headline, of the design, of the graphics that communicates stay or go. So when you're coming up with ideas, the hook is most often found in the copy. But again, I'm going to say this, that I can look at a hook and it can look amazing on copy, but then somebody can put it in a funnel or on a page. And then I'm like, ooh, you're like, you lost it, right? It got lost. Because the design isn't right or the picture is distracting or the colors don't quite work. And so the hook is really the feeling that you communicate to the lead on that page as to whether or not they're going to pay attention. Okay. So the first piece of advice is do not confuse a great hook with being clever. So I saw a lot of people on this thread that I was looking at, and I would say things like, hey, this is too broad, or, this is too vague. This isn't going to capture attention. I don't know how this is any different than the 8,000 other, you know, workshops out there. And so they rewrote it, but instead of writing a good hook, they just made it clever, like themey, you know, I'm trying to think of an example. You know, let's say you love whatever, you love Disney. And so I do love Disney. And so I rewrite my headlines all with sort of a Disney theme. Or I try to, like, you know, cleverly disguise the words or use different words than I would normally do. Like, clever is not a hook. Clever actually oftentimes over complicates the message. Cleverness usually makes you feel cool, right? Like, oh, cool, look how clever I was when I wrote this. But the person, it's very hard to be clever and have the person be like, oh, that was good. Most of the time it comes off as cheesy. Like, a great hook doesn't necessarily mean clever, okay? A good hook is understandable in three seconds or less. And most things that are clever take longer than three seconds to figure out, okay? So when I say that is too big or too broad, don't be clever. Like, clever is not going to work here, okay? The second thing is that a good hook is a pattern interrupt. So when they land on the page, there's something that happens in their brain that either says, ooh, this is different. I haven't seen this before, or, huh, maybe I should keep reading. Okay, so something that denotes difference. Now, a lot of people, when they're doing pattern interrupts, they simply do the opposite of what someone expects. So if I am a weight loss coach and I'm teaching people how to lose weight, my hook, my pattern interrupt, is going to be a headline that says, you know, never give up cheeseburgers. Right? It's a pattern interrupt because it's not what you expect I'm going to say. And that's usually enough to get me to keep reading, but it doesn't always have to be contrarian. It can be. Another thing that creates a pattern interrupt is curiosity, right? Where they don't know where you're going with it. It doesn't mean they don't understand what you're doing. They totally should understand in three seconds what you're saying, but they don't necessari understand where it leads, which is why they want to keep reading. Okay? So that's really, really important. If I said to you something like, I don't know, write a book in two hours, you instantly know what I'm saying, but you don't really know the answer and you don't really know the end. You're like, how is she going to do that? So that's that curiosity and it's something different. It's unexpected and you're going to keep reading. Now if I said, you know, if I like tried to disguise write a book in two hours to be clever, like, you know, write your, you know, bespoke memoir in the same time it takes to watch, you know, a Netflix documentary, someone would do that, right? Like, they would be like, oh, look, see, isn't that great copy? No, it's not. Because it went from write a book in two hours. I understand it in two seconds or less to write a bespoke memoir. And the time it takes to watch a Netflix documentary, I'm like, oh, that's like four or five seconds of me trying to understand, right? And so that is sort of the example of what I'm, what I'm trying to say here. Okay. Another thing is it should sound interesting or possibly fun or sexy, meaning you want it like you want whatever it is the promise is, you know, whether it's weight loss, whether it's, you know, better marriage, whether it's, you know, a six figure business, whatever it happens to be like you want what it says. So, you know, some people, they try to write good hooks and they're like, you know, plan your, I don't know, let's see, plan your what you're going to do with your business when you retire, right? Nobody wants to do that. Like it's not, oh, I don't want to do that. Right. So you have to be careful when you're selling things that are kind of not super exciting to do. You have to kind of find the hook that's like, oh, I do want that. Right. Without getting so clever that they. It takes longer than three or four seconds. So short headlines are easier to comprehend than long headlines. So don't make your headline, you know, more than two lines. In fact, one line is best if you absolutely have to say what you need to say. You can do a pre headline, you can do a tagline, and then you can design it so that those are much smaller so that someone is still reading the first part very clearly. And then they're sort of backing off and reading the other pieces. Okay, so kind of as like a recap. It needs to be different. It needs to be clear, needs to avoid being too clever. It needs to be understood in three seconds or less. It has to either have curiosity or sexy, like you want to do what it says. It could be something that's interesting and fun. It could sound new, different, something you haven't tried before. It could be going against the grain. Okay, so that is how you write a good hook. And a good hook is. Does include copy, but it also means that when you put that copy on the page, that the images and the color and the design is communicating. It's all working together to create that same like, please keep reading, please keep paying attention, please keep listening. So hopefully that helps. Appreciate y'. All. Talk to you soon. If you're ready to create, grow, scale your online business, you can go to createyourlaptoplife.com forward/podcast and get a free plan on how you can get started today.